Dad's Daily Writing: the Best Bits
Sep 28, 2026 · 7 min · 4 segments
I write a daily blog and have done so since January 2018. Since January 2026, I've been choosing two a week and recording them as a podcast. Bean and Gone explains what a BCT is and why they are…
So farewell BCTs, at least for this year.
This blog has been running since 2018, so perhaps it's not that surprising when I explain that over time it's started developing its own unique vocabulary.
That said, there are only really two words that only ever appear here, or in the weekly letters I still write to the boys.
The first is CRAFFLE, a portmanteau word combining coffee table and record crate, and refers to the homemade storage solution for my records.
You can tell I made them because of my signature carpentry style, not a single right angle in sight.
The other is more of a set of initials, B-C-T, and was accidentally invented by my youngest son when he couldn't find the word obelisk to describe the obelisks that I had made for the garden.
Are they bean climey things, he asked, and ever since they've been known as B-C-T's.
Despite making them three years ago, this was the first year I actually grew beans up them, for reasons I cannot totally recall, but which have something to do with sweet peas.
In fact, so successful was my bean growing, I managed to create the world's first bean henge to accommodate the huge number of beanstalks invading the garden.
Actually, there were so many, we had a couple of random emails from a chap called Jack asking if he could pop around one day, but we declined.
All that nasty business with the pigs taught us a lesson.
Anyway, we've had such a bumper crop of beans that mum was able to freeze several portions, meaning we can keep eating garden produce into the long winter months that are around the corner.
But today it was time to thank them for their service, put the BCTs in a garage where they will overwinter, and empty the pots ready for mum to fill them with bulbs of some description.
I'm not sure exactly what, but I'm guessing there won't be 60 watt bayonet fittings.
The summer growing season is definitely over, so over the next few days I'll have to do the same with the tomato plants and the cucumbers, having similarly recycled the courgettes and harvested the last crop of potatoes.
The aubergines will probably follow soon, and the broccoli too, unless it decides to sprout, as its name suggested it would have done already.
It's been the one disaster of the growing season, but I think we can blame the drought.
Oh, and there was one more major harvest last weekend I've just remembered about.
It took a great deal of hard graft and physical labour, leaving my body aching and covered in sweat, but I managed to harvest our entire crop of carrots in a single afternoon.
An astonishing achievement, I think you'll agree.
Not only that, but we cooked and ate the lot for dinner that same day.
All three of them.
So farewell BCTs, at least for this year.
This blog has been running since 2018, so perhaps it's not that surprising when I explain that over time it's started developing its own unique vocabulary.
That said, there are only really two words that only ever appear here, or in the weekly letters I still write to the boys.
The first is CRAFFLE, a portmanteau word combining coffee table and record crate, and refers to the homemade storage solution for my records.
You can tell I made them because of my signature carpentry style, not a single right angle in sight.
The other is more of a set of initials, B-C-T, and was accidentally invented by my youngest son when he couldn't find the word obelisk to describe the obelisks that I had made for the garden.
Are they bean climey things, he asked, and ever since they've been known as B-C-T's.
Despite making them three years ago, this was the first year I actually grew beans up them, for reasons I cannot totally recall, but which have something to do with sweet peas.
In fact, so successful was my bean growing, I managed to create the world's first bean henge to accommodate the huge number of beanstalks invading the garden.
Actually, there were so many, we had a couple of random emails from a chap called Jack asking if he could pop around one day, but we declined.
All that nasty business with the pigs taught us a lesson.
Anyway, we've had such a bumper crop of beans that mum was able to freeze several portions, meaning we can keep eating garden produce into the long winter months that are around the corner.
But today it was time to thank them for their service, put the BCTs in a garage where they will overwinter, and empty the pots ready for mum to fill them with bulbs of some description.
I'm not sure exactly what, but I'm guessing there won't be 60 watt bayonet fittings.
The summer growing season is definitely over, so over the next few days I'll have to do the same with the tomato plants and the cucumbers, having similarly recycled the courgettes and harvested the last crop of potatoes.
The aubergines will probably follow soon, and the broccoli too, unless it decides to sprout, as its name suggested it would have done already.
It's been the one disaster of the growing season, but I think we can blame the drought.
Oh, and there was one more major harvest last weekend I've just remembered about.
It took a great deal of hard graft and physical labour, leaving my body aching and covered in sweat, but I managed to harvest our entire crop of carrots in a single afternoon.
An astonishing achievement, I think you'll agree.
Not only that, but we cooked and ate the lot for dinner that same day.
All three of them.
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.
